Adhesives and Coatings for Bonding in Seawater
Abstract
Development of manmade underwater adhesives and coatings is still limited by many engineering challenges. Thousands of natural organisms, on the other hand, produce underwater adhesives that are essential for their survival, proving that the development of underwater adhesives is not an insurmountable chemistry or materials problem. Marine sandcastle worms use underwater adhesives on a massive scale to glue sandgrains together, one at a time, into reef-size intertidal structures. Holistic characterization of the sandcastle worm adhesive system inspired a new paradigm for the development of synthetic water-borne, non-toxic adhesives that can be applied and cured underwater. The bioinspired approach exploits the condensed polyelectrolyte composition and the environmentally triggered hardening (curing) mechanisms of the natural sandcastle glue. The broad goal is to further develop and test cost-effective, scalable, and environmentally friendly adhesives to be used in the dockside repair of naval vessels in the presence of seawater. Other goals include development of novel on-demand adhesive curing mechanisms. APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Dec 16, 2019
- Source ID
- N000142012073
Entities
People
- Russell J. Stewart
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Utah